Organizations designed to help solve an issue or improve something have been around forever. If there is some kind of injustice, or something bad is happening, then enough people will usually notice and form an organization to counter it. There are thousands of organizations dedicated to good causes, and without them the world would be a much more unpleasant place. An example would be Silva Tree, which is an environmental organization. Silva Tree is a great company I have recently come into contact with that offer environmental related investments. The investments that Silva Tree offers are excellent for people that want a steady return on their investment, and have a desire to do something good for the environment as well.
Of all Silva Tree’s investments, the one that has really taken off is their Princess Project. The Princess Project (open since 2009) offers a fantastic RIO of 15% per annum, and is basically a timber plantation. A return like that is very compelling especially when you know you’ll be helping the environment at the same time. Not only does the Princess Project offer steady returns, but it gives a lot of benefits to surrounding communities and the environment. Another thing going for it is that returns are paid every 5 years (unlike every 20+ years as in some other investments).
If you are interested in Silva Tree’s Princess Project (and you probably should be), there are application forms on their website. But there are a number of causes that Silva Tree is dedicated to that you will support when you invest with them, and they always abide by all laws and standards. One nice thing they did lately was helped the small Escuela Cano Zapota school, which needed some serious repair work. Silva Tree takes care to work with local governments at all times.
Another really good investment offered by Silva Tree was the Carbon Offset Forestry Project. Unfortunately this sold out in July 2009, so you won’t be able to take part in it now, but it did very while it was offered. This investment basically worked by buying large areas of rainforest from private sellers, in order to conserve and protect it. When I heard about this, it reminded me of when I took a Qantas flight a couple months ago and there was an option to plant a tree for $3 or so when booking, in order to contribute to offsetting the emissions of the plane flight. Remember that rainforests absorb CO2 and they also provide habitat – so they need to be preserved at all costs.
But the Princess Project and Carbon Offset Forestry Projects are certainly not the only investments that Silva Tree offers, and they are dedicated to doing a lot of different things. An investment of Silva Tree’s that really got me interested was their Bio-Fuel project. It is anticipated that bio-fuel will be useful for all kinds of things, and research is being conducting on it all the time. It has been proven already that bio-fuel has the ability to do things like create electricity.
A major factor contributing to Silva Tree’s success is the fact that they have some very good people directing the company. These include Maurice Sjerps (project management), Patrick Visser (Business development) and Keren Katz (project design & development). The most important thing in an organization dedicated to some kind of worthy cause is that everyone there believes in what they are doing.
